As long as there is snow and ice, the reason for the season will be freezin.
So to keep the days merry and bright - and warm - I made a two-part playlist
of winter-y-solstice songs on Youtube. Click through to listen with me.
May you forever enjoy ...
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Apricity (ahPREEsiti) is a very old English word, taken from the Latin aprīcitās, meaning: the warmth of the sun in winter. Apricity can also define an unexpected change in attitude when your heart senses a feeling of hopefulness.
For the Winter Solstice ... a very good word indeed.
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December 21st marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year,
as well as the first day of Winter. From here on, the days grow longer and warmer. This is the day the sun returns. This is the promise of light in a time of darkness.
This is the gift of reassuring hope.
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As Earth reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun, the Sun then appears at its lowest point in the sky, and its noontime elevation seems to stay in the same postion several days before and after. The more we discover about our solar system, the more astounding this event becomes.
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Winter was a time of dread for the ancient peoples. As the sun disappeared,
life around them withered and died. A great ritual was needed to revert its course.
The solstice became a time of renewal and celebration – little wonder so many cultures mark major holidays around this time.
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Celebration of the Winter Solstice is universal and has been observed for tens of thousands of years by virtually every culture in the world. To the ancients, it was the most important day of the year and their beseeching fires were built in earnest. These rituals were probably the earliest seasonal festivals of humankind.
How remarkable that we still embrace them!
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Susan Cooper
So the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow‐white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us ‐ listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!
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Music, too, dates back to before the written word. The earliest notated song,
a hymn to the goddess Nikkal, survives in cuneiform on a clay tablet from 1400 BCE.
Could it be that singing evolved from early animal cries (our own) and was the beginning of human language and speech?
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Carols are one of our oldest holiday traditions. Many of the songs we sing today date back hundreds of years. Caroling probably began as part of an oral tradition that surrounded Winter Solstice celebrations of long ago.
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The playlist I created has modern, vintage and ancient pieces of music;
550 songs that paint a picture of the world's oldest most enduring celebration –
the longest night of the year, the return of the sun, the promise of light and hope in a time of darkness – the wondrous Winter Solstice.
Please join me listening to the music of ...
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Bonus tracks!
As the wheel of the year turns,
I wish you much apricity, this season and every season.
Melanie Renn
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